Retired Ford Worker

Photographing this Image is very personal to me. The breif for this assignment was to look at the photographer August Sander and create an image inspired by his work. August Sander was a very famous photographer, known for photographing people at or expressing their profession / job. The person who came to mind for this assignment was immediatly my Grandpapa Lucien Lavalliere. Even though he has been retired for a long time now since the plant closed, I knew he would make a perfect subject.

My Grandpapa has been a huge part of my life. We use to build things when I was a kid just for fun, have water gun fights, and launch bottle rockets at the park becasue he watched a video and was like "my grandkids will love this!" and we did. We loved every minute of it. No idea was ever too big or too small, he was on board.

I have always wanted to photograph my Grandparents. Two, I never got the chance to. But, I have time left to capture my last remaining two. That's where my idea came from, a place of wanting to capture my Grandpapa, to capture the man that has inspired, and encouraged me to build something; set goals, and have fun doing it.

My Grandpapa use to work long hours at the Ford plant, and was a car pool driver for other employees commuting from London and area. From what I understand he loved his job. He was gone alot for work, but when the plant closed he retired. He worked at the GAP for a few years aswell to earn some extra money. He was a cleaner there, and from my memory as a kid we would pop in to see him at the mall. Everyone spoke highly of him and enjoyed having him work there.

My Grandpapa is 80 years old now. He still loves to tinker and do what he can to fix and maintain his home. His silly jokes and banter would make anyone laugh. For Christmas this year I had my Grandpapa for secret Santa, and I thought what a better gift then a wooden 3D puzzle of a steam engine (he is a massive historian and loves old trains/planes/and war time inventions), that we can build together just like old times. It took us probably 6 hours to build but, it made me feel like a kid, getting to building something with him again.

This Image was also set up and taken in his garage, another symbolic location where we spent most of the summers playing and creating together. This image and this assignment made me feel fulfilled in so many ways, and reminisce on wonderful memories of the times we shared together growing up.

Thank you for reading,

Kenzie Lavalliere

Owner / Lead Photographer

Rexton Studio Co.